Dr. Rhonda Patrick discusses how conditioning the body to heat stress through sauna use, called “hyperthermic conditioning” causes adaptations that increase athletic endurance (by increasing plasma volume and blood flow to heart and muscles) and muscle mass (by boosting levels of heat shock proteins and growth hormone). She also discusses the profound effects of hyperthermic conditioning on the brain including cognitive function.

Competitions upcoming
1. Emma APF meet June 22 THIS WEEKEND!!!
2. Chris USPA Nationals June 29
3. Lexington USPA Sunflower State Games July 27 & Conquer fundraiser
here in SLC where I am not sure who is all lifting again.

Can BCAAs alone build muscle?

“Technically, no, since your muscles are composed of all 20 amino acids. In practice, BCAAs taken alone can promote muscle growth — if your body can get the 17 other amino acids in some other way (it can synthesize 11 of them; the other 6 it may find in BCAAs some food you’re still digesting, for instance). Still, BCAAs or even EAAs taken alone stimulate MPS less than the same amount of BCAAs or EAAs from whey protein.

But isn’t leucine the most anabolic of the amino acids? It is, and yet, taken alone in a fasted state, it increases MPS (MUSLCE PROTEIN SYNTHESIS) and anabolic signaling (notably through the mTOR/p70S6K pathway) for about 1.5 hours only. MPS stops as soon as another of the EAAs gets depleted. BCAAs contain only 3 of the 9 EAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

One study compared 25 grams of whey protein (providing 3 grams of leucine), 6.25 grams of whey protein mixed with leucine (3 grams of leucine in total), and 6.25 grams of whey protein mixed with EAAs (0.75 grams of leucine in total, and as much of the other EAAs as in 25 grams of whey protein). At the 3-hour mark post-fasted-exercise, all three supplements stimulated MPS similarly, but at the 5-hour mark, only the pure whey protein still stimulated MPS. Without the exercise stimulus, however, even the pure whey protein could not increase MPS past the 3-hour mark.

All right. But it isn’t too surprising that, for a same amount of leucine, the pure whey protein (which contains more amino acids total) should win out. What would happen, though, if you increased the dose of added leucine? A follow-up study set to answer that question. It found that, at the 4.5-hour mark post-fasted-exercise, 25 grams of whey protein (providing 3 grams of leucine) and 6.25 grams of whey protein plus 4.25 grams of leucine (5 grams of leucine in total) stimulated MPS similarly, whereas 6.25 grams of whey protein plus 2.25 grams of leucine (3 grams of leucine in total) no longer stimulated MPS.

Interestingly, this same study also found that 6.25 grams of whey protein mixed with
BCAAs (5 grams of leucine in total) stimulated MPS less than 6.25 grams of whey protein plus 4.25 grams of leucine (also 5 grams of leucine in total). In other words, leucine stimulated MPS more when not taken alongside the two other BCAAs, possibly because all three BCAAs share intestinal and muscular transporters, so that isoleucine and valine compete with leucine for both absorption in the gut and entry into muscle tissue.

If you don’t get enough protein, you can take small doses of leucine to compensate — to some extent, and only with regard to muscle building. Importantly, BCAAs or EAAs taken alone stimulate MPS less than the same amount of BCAAs or EAAs from whey protein, which contains all 20 amino acids.”